Safety device



W. J. BURKE.

SAFETY DEVICE. APPLICATIQN FILED oem-1. 1920.

1,401,874, Patented nw. 27, 1921,

Q E j@ uwen/10H (/q/f William J.BurKe.

Y what is WILLIAM JOHN BURKE, OF YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO.

SAFETY DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Dec. 27, 1921.

Application filed December 14, 1920. Serial No. 430,71).L

To zZZ wiz/0m t may concern.' I

Be it known that I, WILLIAM J. BURKE, a citizen of the United States,and resident or' Youngstown, in the county of Mahoning and State ofOhio, have invented a new and Improved Safety Device, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description.

y invention relates to a safety device, and aims to provide an articleof this character more particularly adapted for use in connection withrail-road rail systems.

It is a well appreciated fact that a great number of accidents haveoccurred, due to commonly known as splitting a switch. This is to beattributed to the fact that the switch is thrown either open or closed,and these parts do not seat to their fullest extent, subsequently atrain passing over the switch point, will cause the latter incident tothe vibration, to be thrown into the opposite direction, thus resultingin a derailment, with often extemely serious results.

Having these defects in mind, I have constructed a safety deviceprimarily intended for use in connection with rail switches, and bymeans of which any possibility of the switch being accidentally thrownupon a train passing over the same is absolutely prevented.

A second objectv of my invention is the provision of a device of thischaracter which shall be entirely automatic in nature, so that thedifficulty incident to the human equation is avoided.

A further object of my invention is the construction of a safety device,which will cause a complete throwing of the switch, even although theparts or' the same have been carelessly left in partly closed position.

Another object of my invention is the rovision of a device of thecharacter speci ed, which shall be extremely simple in construction, andin which the wear which the same may receive may 'be compensated for, sothat the device will at all times operate properly.

Further objects of my invention will appear in the annexed specificationand drawings, which latter present one practical embodiment of myinvention, and in which- Figure 1 is al fragmentary plan view of aportion of a railway track and switch, showing my improved deviceassociated with the latter.

Fig. 2 is a side view thereof.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken in the direction of the arrows,

3 3 of Fig. 1.

and along the lines Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, and

taken in the direction of the arrows and along the lines 4 4 of Fig. 1.

5 is a third se and 4 F ig. Figs. 3

ction corresponding to and taken along the lines 5-5 in the direction ofthe arrows, indicated in Fig. l.

In these views the indicates the rails,

and the reference ynu reference numeral 10 supported upon ties 11,

meral 12 the movable points of a switch, whichlatter may be of anydesired character, embodiment illustrated,

but which, inthe includes a pair of synchronously movable points fordiverting the wheels of a vehicl e to the rails 13.l

Contrary to the conventional construction, a supplemental secured one toeach of suitable means, such member has its ends the points 12, by anyas foot pieces 14, and

and wear, the pieces 1 clude a rods 15,

pair of oppositely secured together by a turn buckle 16.

4 may Vconveniently inscrew threaded Thus it will be obvious that amovement of one of the points by virtue of the inte 12 willvbepermitted, rposed member to the second point 12, and also a movementbodily on the part of the m movement of the po tween the latter as emberwill result in a ints, the distance' beaforestated, being capable ofadjustment for the purposes named.

Contrary to the conventional construction, also, a pair of elements inthe plemental rails 17 are conveniently nature of suppositioned adjacentthe outer edges of the rails 10, and are movably supported thereto byany suitable type with respect of bracket,

which latter conveniently includes, as has been indicated in Fig. 3, astandard 18 providing a screw threaded rod 19, properly supported andbraced as at 20.

plemental rails are These suppivoted at a point beyond their center sothat they will normally lie as indicated in Fig. 2, ing the wedge-shapedelement 23 with the end supportin a plane upon the tread of the rail 10,unless depressed by t he moving stock.

lVith a view of providing suitable kmea-ns serving as a guiding elementfor the supplemental member connecting the switch points 12, it to Figs.1, 2 utilize plates 25, whi

will be seen reference being had and 4, that I may conveniently ch areclamped to the base of the rails 10 in any suitable manner, and provideguiding portions 26 through which the ends of the supplemental connect-`ing member may extend to permit` of a ready transverse movement of thesame.

It will now be noted, that the member connecting the points 12 of theswitch preferably extend beyond the outer edges of theV portions of thevehicle wheels will contact with the. rails 17, and in some instances,vthis contact will be with great violence, which will cause the tendencyon the part of the supplemental rails to be distorted to the plane whichis non-parallel to the rails l0. To overcome this, certainot' the -ties11 may conveniently carry guide elements` 24, illustrated in detail inFig. 5, the supplemental rails 17 being slidably interposed between therails 10 and the guide elements 24, whereby any lateral displacement ofthese rails is precluded.

lt will now be appreciated that upon the points of the switch beingthrown by any suitable means (not shown) that the supplemental rails 17'remain in Vthe position shown in Fig. 2, until a vehicle passing overthe rails 1() contacts with said switch 17 at a point beyond their pointof pivotal mounting. The vfree ends being now depressed by the vehiclecause the elements 23 to cooperate with the similar `shaped elements 22,

and thereby forcing the switch points 12 to their proper seating againstthe sides or' the rails 10. When the train has passed the switchsection, the supplemental rail 17, being no longer acted upon by theweight of the vehicle, and being influenced by gravital force of theends opposite the opposite wedge-shaped members 10 will return to theirnormal inclined position as shown in Fig. 2.

Thus it will be seen that I have' constructed a safety device in which aconnecting member moves with the switch, and

rwhich connecting member has. cooperating.- with it a relatively fixedelement which willV be actuated uponthe passage of a'vehicle, to cause apositive movement of the movable parts of the switch in. the event thatthe same are onlypartly thrown, and this seat ing'of the parts will bemaintained until the passage of the vehicle, at which time parts ofthedevice will return to their normal po. sition and leaving the switchVpoints free for subsequent manual operations.- Y

Gbviously numerous modifications of structure might readily be resortedto with;

out in the least departing. from the spirit ojif my invention, which Iclaim as;

In a safety device or railway switches,

the combination of switch pointsjoot pieces secured to the switchpoints, operating members lying adjacent'to the raily and actuated bythe rolling stock, a compression element carried on one end of each ort'the-operating members, a `slide bar connecting with said toot pieces andactuated by saidcom-pression member whereby the switch points aretightly forced home, and means interposed between said Afoo'tpieces toadjust the same in proper spaced relation and to permit of the wear.being` compensated for.

WILLIAM JGHN BURKE.

.An AAA

